As with most things, it depends. At the college where D ultimately matriculated, the college admissions counselor for D’s geographic area was a brand new graduate of the college with a prep high school background from another state. I sincerely doubt he knew much at all about D’s public high school. While visiting a peer school to the one D is now attending, I met a former high school classmate who is an admission officer at this peer school. I told her a little about the highly competitive environment at D’s high school, and asked her honestly if she was aware of the academic environment in NJ high schools like ours. She admitted that she had had no idea.